New Spy DVDs Out Recently: M:I, MI-5, English and Eurospies Both Real and Fake

Once again, I'm behind here, with another massive catch-up round-up. There have been a lot of spy DVDs released in the past few weeks, all of them good stuff. As always, if you're inclined to buy any of them, you can support the Double O Section by doing so from the provided Amazon links!

MI-5: Volume 10

Now American fans get to see what British fans saw on TV last fall: the final season of the BBC's long-running spy drama MI-5 (known as Spooks over there). Unlike the last few seasons, MI-5: Volume 10 actually has a few special features (albethey disposable and spoiler-filled ones) including "Top Ten MI-5 Moments" (as chosen by the cast and crew) and "Harry’s Game," devoted to MI-5’s most constant character [Harry Pearce, played by Peter Firth]." I'm looking forward to seeing how ten seasons' worth of twists and turns pays off in what I hope turns out to be a satisfying finale! Retail is $29.98 for the 2-disc set, containing all 6 episodes.

Killers Are Challenged

Finally, we gat the long-awaited third film in the "Bob Fleming, Agent 077" series of Eurospy movies on DVD! Following Secret Agent Fireball (starring Richard Harrison) and the unforgettable Fury in Marrakesh (a prequel in which Stephen Forsyth took over the lead role), which both came out on PAL discs from the Swedish company Fin de Siecle Media, the middle film in the series, Killers Are Challenged (aka 077 Bob Fleming - Man in Casablanca) is now available as an All Region PAL title from another Swedish label, Njuta Films. Killers Are Challenged (1966) was directed by prolific Italian filmmaker Antonio Margheriti (often credited as Anthony Dawson), whose only other Eurospy movie was the thoroughly entertaining Lightning Bolt, starring Anthony Eisley. (Unless you count the giallo Naked You Die which has a few vague spy elements and even a cameo from "James Bond.") Personally, I really enjoy Lightning Bolt, but the infallible Eurospy Guide rates Killers as a better film, so I'm quite eager to see it! Susy Anderson, the beautiful Sdenka from Mario Bava's Black Sabbath (in her only spy role) and the delectable Wandisa Guida (from Lightning Bolt) co-star. No Eurospy movie ever relied too heavily on a plot, but for those who care about such things, here's the official description: "Three scientists discover an alternative energy to oil. Two of them die under mysterious circumstances, while the third - Coleman - is protected by CIA agents in Geneva. Special Agent Bob Fleming is instructed to go to Casablanca with the researcher's identity in order to investigate the mysterious deaths. He convinces Coleman's wife to work - with the rest of the women around him trying to kill him." You won't find this one on Amazon, but the import DVD, which does feature an English audio option, is available from Diabolik DVD for $21.99.

Mandrill

In the vein of the Jean Dujardin OSS 117 films and Black Dynamite, the Chilean action thriller Mandrill is a modern film conceived to look like it was made in another era. Only while those are parodies, this one is played relatively straight. The setting is South American, but the flavor is pure Eurospy. I've wanted to see this ever since I first heard about it when it played the festival circuit a few years ago, and I'm very excited that now I can, thanks to Magnet Releasing, who have released Mandrill on DVD and Blu-ray with English subtitles. (I think there's also a dubbed option, which might actually be appropriate for this sort of film.) Special features include the trailer, "Behind the Scenes of Mandrill" and "Anatomy of a Fight Scene." Retail is $26.98 for the DVD and $29.98 for the Blu-ray, but both, of course, are considerably cheaper on Amazon.

Mission: Impossible - The '89 TV Season

Presumably originally intended to coincide with the DVD release of the latest Tom Cruise blockbuster before it ended up being a big hit and lasting in cinemas for longer than likely expected, the second season of the 1988-90 revival series of Mission: Impossible instead hit DVD a few weeks ago, beating its theatrical cousin by a month. And what a joyous occasion it is for fans of classic spy television: we now have the final season of Mission: Impossible TV episodes containing the final appearances of Peter Graves as the one and only, real Jim Phelps. It's hard to believe that the first theatrical Mission (in which Jon Voight played a very different character named Phelps) came just five years after this DVD set leaves off. The two incarnations of the brand seem worlds apart. This 4-disc set (containing all 16 episodes of the revival's second season) represents my own preference. These episodes aren't as good as the Sixties and Seventies ones, but they're still highly enjoyable and, for me, more fun than the movies. Speaking of that original series, one of its stars, Greg Morris, returns to the revival once more reprising his role as Barney Collier in the two-part season premiere, "The Golden Serpent." (Those episodes, which were bundled as a film in Europe, are directed by old ITC hand Don Chaffey, who helmed his share of spy fare like The Prisoner, The Avengers, The Baron and more back in the Sixties.) Morris' son, Phil, is a regular on the revival, playing Barney's son Grant. The other regulars this season are Tony Hamilton, Jane Badler and Thaao Penghlis. Happily, for the first time ever on any Mission: Impossible DVD set from CBS/Paramount, there are even some bonus features! Not many, granted, but some. We get four episodic promos (including the trailer for the feature version of "The Golden Serpent") and the priceless "Holiday Promo," which features Peter Graves and the rest of the cast in snug winter sweaters in front of a Christmas tree wishing audiences season's greetings! It may not be that 1997 Diagnosis Murder episode "Discards" (which guest starred Phil Morris and Barbara Bain, reprising her Cinnamon Carter role from Mission's earliest seasons), which I would have loved to see included, but it's pure gold for Graves fans and likely the source of a screengrab that will feature on my Christmas post next winter! Retail on Mission: Impossible: The '89 TV Season is $39.98, but Amazon's got it way cheaper: just $25.49 right now. Complete your collection today!

You can also order Mission: Impossible: The '88 and '89 TV Seasons, which bundles the entire revival series together for just $69.98 (or less on Amazon).

Johnny English Reborn

Johnny English Reborn, the unexpected eight-years-after-the-fact follow-up to the 2003 Rowan Atkinson spy spoof Johnny English, made a mint overseas but failed to have much impact in America. Hopefully more U.S. viewers will discover it on DVD and Blu-ray DVD Combo, courtesy of Universal Studios Home Entertainment, because it's a very funny spy send-up. In the pantheon of spy spoofs, it's not as good as the Jean Dujardin OSS 117 movies, but it's way, way better than any of the Austin Powers sequels. If you liked the original Johnny English (which is making its North American Blu-ray debut to coincide with this release), you'll like this one too. I laughed pretty much all the way through it. The DVD release includes a commentary track with director Oliver Parker and writer Hamish McColl, deleted and extended scenes with director intros, a gag reel, and a featurette on "The Wheelchair Chase." The Blu-ray/DVD combo has all that plus four more featurettes ("The English Files: The Making of Johnny English Reborn," "Working With Rowan," "Gadgets" and "English in Hong Kong"). So that's the one to get. Retail is $29.98 for the DVD and $34.98 for the BD/DVD Combo, but of course both are significantly cheaper on Amazon.

Tradecraft: Sony Buys Interpol Comedy

Variety reports that Sony has bought a comedy pitch called Interpol from writers Jonathan Keasey and Brant Bolvin for Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment to produce. According to the trade, Interpol follows a group of desk jockey analysts who normally turn over their research to seasoned field agents who do the actual arresting of criminals. When a leak outs the field agents, the groups are forced to switch roles. Presumably, hilarity ensues. Overbrook was also behind the recent spy comedy This Means War.

Jonathan Levine in Talks to Direct Dead Spy Running

Twitchfilm reports (via Dark Horizons) that indie director Jonathan Levine (50/50, The Wackness) is now in negotiations to direct Dead Spy Running at Warner Brothers. Dead Spy Running is based on a book by Jon Stock that I liked a lot (read my review here), and it has the potential to make a very good movie. It's road to the screen has been longer than anyone would have expected when the rights were snapped up by Warner Brothers prior to publication. At that time, McG (This Means War) was set to direct. Subsequently, we learned that Stephen Gaghan (Syriana) was penning the adaptation, and at some point along the way he was also set to take over the directing reins from McG, making his helming debut. Now, according to the website, Gaghan has moved on, and Levine is in talks to direct from a script by Gaghan and Jamie Moss (Street Kings). I'm curious to see what he does with it. The studio is hoping to launch a franchise capable of competing with Uni's Bourne series. Indeed, Stock's Dead Spy Running is the first book in a trilogy. The next, Games Traitors Play, is due out in the U.S. at the end of this month.

Tradecraft: Homeland Returns September 30

Deadline reports that Showtime has set a premiere date for the second season of Homeland: September 30 at 10pm. I'm marking my calendar already. That probably indicates that the Season 1 DVDs and Blu-rays, currently available for pre-order on Amazon but still unscheduled, will come out some time in the month preceding the premiere. And if you haven't seen Homeland, not only is the DVD worth watching; it's actually worth subscribing to Showtime to see the series live! Simply put, Homeland is amazing. I truly believe it's the best dramatic spy series since The Sandbaggers in the Seventies (or since Smiley's People if you count miniseries). Seriously, it's that good, and if you like your spies in a more realistic vein, it's a must-see. I can't believe how spoiled we are with quality spy shows right now. Between Homeland and Archer, we've got the best spy drama since the Seventies and the best spy comedy ever (yeah, it beats Get Smart) on cable right now. How cool is that? All we need now is a great new escapist spy series, in the vein of The Avengers or Mission: Impossible, to complete the trifecta...

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Lassiter (1984)!

One of my favorite 80s movies and one of my favorites of the cat burglar-forced-to-spy subgenre, Lassiter is coming to DVD! On April 24. I figured the only way we'd ever see a Lassiter DVD at this point was on MOD, but this is an actual DVD from an obscure company that specializes in obscure movies that are particularly awesome: Hen's Tooth Video. No matter what else they did, I would be forever indebted to Hen's Tooth for their Region 1 release of my favorite Eurospy movie, Deadlier Than the Male. (If you don't own that and you're reading this blog, stop whatever you're doing, follow this link, and go buy it right now. Done? Okay, now we can continue.) The week before that, they're also releasing another great Tom Selleck period adventure from the same era (while he was trying to make up for missing out on Indiana Jones by grasping at anything like it), High Road to China. That one's not a spy movie, but it does have an excellent John Barry score. High Road to China will be available on both DVD and Blu-ray.

In Lassiter, Selleck plays the suave titular cat burglar, operating in 1930s London. When British and American Intelligence get wind of a major diamond shipment moving through the German embassy, the spooks force Lassiter to pull another job—for them, It Takes A Thief-style. As he plots the heist, he finds himself between two beautiful women: his sweet, long-suffering girlfriend, played by former Bond Girl Jane Seymour, and sexy femme fatale Lauren Hutton. Persuaders! composer Ken Thorne provides the jazz-heavy, period-appropriate soundtrack. One of my favorite moments to date toiling (fruitlessly, thus far) in the Hollywood salt mines of screenwriting came on a heist movie my partners and I were writing that had endured an excruciatingly lengthy development process, when one of the producers name-checked Lassiter on a conference call. I was so excited to discover that there was someone else in this industry for whom Lassiter was a touchstone (and reassured that despite the frustrations of the project, I was clearly working with the right person), and I hope that this DVD release makes it a touchstone to a whole new generation as well. It's a really fun movie, and for my money Selleck's best theatrical effort.

Tradecraft: An Almost-Bond Takes TV Spy Role in New Fox Series

Nip/Tuck's Julian McMahon was supposedly one of the final candidates to replace Pierce Brosnan* as James Bond in 2006's Casino Royale. At the time, the Australian actor seemed the best-suited to me of the names we kept seeing mentioned. Since then, Daniel Craig has proved me wrong, and I can't imagine anyone but him playing the 2000s incarnation of 007. (But I'd still take McMahon over Sam Worthington or Henry Cavill any day!) Now, Deadline reports that McMahon is close to taking another spy role—on Fox's still-untitled teen spy drama scripted by Karyn Usher. (They really need to come up with a title for that one, because I'm sick of typing "untitled Karyn Usher spy pilot.") According to the trade blog, McMahon is "in final negotiations" to play the "mysterious rogue agent who serves as surrogate father and professional mentor in the spy world" to Jane Forsythe, the Hanna-esque teenage CIA orphan lead we learned earlier this week would be portrayed by relative newcomer Saxon Sharbino.

Meanwhile, Angela Bassett will reprise the tough intelligence boss role we've seen her in on Alias and in This Means War as "the calculating and political director of the CIA who takes Jane under her wing." Or, returning to Hanna terms, the Cate Blanchett part. No matter how much debt the final show turns out to owe or not owe to Hanna, La Femme Nikita or The Professional (and despite the involvement of director Brett Ratner, who's helming the pilot), I'm rooting for this one. I like the teen spy subgenre, and I'm curious to see how this Fox show turns out... especially considering the impressive way its cast is shaping up.

*Brosnan himself was once referred to in People Magazine as a "mighty might-have-been" with regards to the role.

Tradecraft: Elton John Developing Animated Elementary School Spy Movie

Trade blog Deadline reports that Elton John's Rocket Pictures (a company started by John and his partners Steve Hamilton Shaw and David Furnish with a mandate to produce family and music-themed projects) "is developing an animated feature from the Michael Buckley novel series NERDS, about kids who run a spy network from their elementary school." Buckley himself is writing the screenplay.

"NERDS" is an acronym for "National Espionage, Rescue and Defense Society," and according to the Amazon blurb, the series "combines all the excitement of international espionage with all the awkwardness of elementary school, and the results are hilarious. A group of unpopular fifth graders run a spy network from inside their school. With the help of cutting-edge science, they transform their nerdy qualities into incredible abilities! Their enemies? An array of James Bond–style villains, each with an evil plan more diabolical and more ridiculous than the last." Sounds good to me! Rocket Pictures is responsible for last year's Gnomeo and Juliet and its upcoming sequel about "Sherlock Gnomes." (Perhaps for further sequel inspiration, John should turn to fellow platform aficionado David Bowie's "The Laughing Gnome," which is just chock-full of equally risible gnome puns.)

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Haywire

DVD Active reports that Steven Soderbergh's 2011 action spy movie Haywire, starring Gina Carano with able support from Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas and Bill Paxton (among others), will hit DVD and Blu-ray from Lionsgate Home Entertainment on May 1. Disappointingly, the only bonus features announced are two featurettes, "Gina Carano: From MMA to Haywire” and “The Men of Haywire." (Oh, and the Blu-ray also includes a digital copy. Yay.) I would have really, really liked to have heard a commentary track from the director. Or seen the Joel McHale-moderated panel he did with Carano, Fassbender and McGregor following the film's premiere at the AFI Film Festival last fall. Oh well. The movie alone is well worth buying, and if you missed this in theaters, I recommend checking it out at home. Not everyone loved it, but I really did. Read my full review here. Retail is $29.95 for the DVD and $39.99 for the BD, but of course both can be pre-ordered for considerably less on Amazon.

Digital Bits Confirm's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol's Home Video Aspect Ratio

When Brad Bird's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol was announced for an April DVD and Blu-ray release, Paramount didn't specifically address the question of the film's aspect ratio. Would it shift from 2.35:1 widescreen to 1.44:1 "fullscreen" (approximately) for the action sequences that were shot using IMAX cameras and expanded in IMAX theaters to fill the entire, square-shaped image space from top to bottom? Some other Blu-rays of films that were partially shot in IMAX have done this, like Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. Well, The Digital Bits has learned the disappointing answer: the Ghost Protocol Blu-ray and DVD will not change aspect ratios for the IMAX sequences (like the spectacular Burj Khalifa scene). On the plus side, that means that the entire film will play smoothly on your widescreen TVs with no potentially noticable or awkward black bars on the side of the frame ("windowboxing"). On the considerable minus side, it means that what we're getting is essentially a cropped image (akin to the dreaded "pan and scan" of old), losing out on picture detail that the director intended to be seen on the top and bottom of the frame. Of course, since the film didn't play exclusively on IMAX screens, Bird framed the sequences so that they would also work fine with that part of the picture cropped in regular theaters and on your TV. But I thought that the shift made the scenes in question even more spectacular, and personally I would have at least liked the option of buying the Blu-ray with multiple aspect ratios. Oh well.

Tradecraft: Keri Russell Defects From IMF to KGB for FX

Deadline reports that Mission: Impossible III co-star Keri Russell has landed the lead role in FX's 1980s-set KGB sleeper drama The Americans. As previously reported, The Americans is one of two spy scripts currently in pilot contention penned by Joseph Weisberg, a former CIA officer turned writer, and author of the espionage novel An Ordinary Spy. (His other show is that drama following assistants at various agencies in the Intelligence Community that Paul Greengrass is attached to produce and possibly direct.) Newly relevant again after the 2010 bust of the Anna Chapman spy ring (so known because she was the hot redhead, not because she was the mastermind), this show follows two KGB spies living as husband and wife in a Washington D.C. suburb during the final decade of the Cold War. Phillip and Elizabeth Jennings may have an arranged spy marriage, but living under the incredible pressure of running a network of agents while maintaining their cover (which includes two children who know nothing about their parents' true profession), they find it becoming more real and more passionate every day. And Phillip finds himself getting more and more comfortable with the American way of life. This premise fascinates me, and I can't wait to see it realized by Weisberg, executive producer Graham Yost (best known as the showrunner of Justified, but to me forever thought of as the author of Spy-Tech, a kid-friendly non-fiction resource about the real-life tools of the spy trade, which I had on near-constant loan from the Waterford Library when I was growing up) and director Gavin O'Connor. I really hope The Americans makes it to series!

Keri Russell is most famous for playing the title role on Felicity (and J.J. Abrams once said that Alias grew out of him pondering, "What if Felicity became a spy?"), though her most recent series was the wildly uneven though sometimes very funny Fox sitcom Running Wilde.

Tradecraft: Jeffrey Nachmanoff to Helm American Assassin

Deadline reports that director Jeffrey Nachmanoff has come aboard to helm CBS Films' American Assassin, an attempt to launch a franchise based on Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp character. I've never read any of Flynn's books, but Nachmanoff seems like a good match to the material to me. In his previous stab at directing a spy movie, 2008's Traitor, he delivered a smart, taut espionage thriller with all the requisite twists and turns, and even made it look impressive on a limited budget. He also directed episodes of Homeland and contributed to the script for The Tourist. (That reminds me, as I search for a post to link to that doesn't exist, I think I have a review of that sitting around somewhere that I never got around to posting. I should dig that up...) I'm certainly curious to see what he does with a big budget action spy movie.

Mitch Rapp's journey to the big screen has been long and slow so far. CBS Films acquired the screen rights to the character in February of 2008 with an eye to creating a franchise, and by January of 2010 had set Antoine Fuqua (Shooter) to direct an adaptation of Flynn's Consent to Kill. That got as far as casting (with Matthew Fox, Gerrard Butler and Colin Farrell all being considered by March of that year), but seems to have fallen apart by June of last year, when it was announced that Edward Zwick (Legends of the Fall) would instead helm the Rapp prequel American Assassin, based on Flynn's 2010 series entry. Now Zwick is out and Nachmanoff is in, but the studio is still keen on beginning with that novel, a prequel which features the hero as a younger man and thus enables CBS Films to kick off their film series with a younger star.

Tradecraft: Brian Kirk Ponders Ludlum's The Osterman Weekend

It's been a while since we've heard about any movement on Summit's new adaptation of the 1972 Robert Ludlum novel The Osterman Weekend (his second), which was previously made into a film in 1983 by Sam Peckinpah. This week, that changed. Deadline reports that Irish director Brian Kirk (Luther, My Boy Jack) is now in talks to direct the conspiracy thriller, using a script by Simon Kinberg and Jesse Wigutow. Ludlum's novel follows his most successful formula of an ordinary man thrust into international espionage. It follows a TV executive named John Tanner who's told by the CIA that one of his guests at an upcoming weekend get together is a KGB agent, and asked to help the Agency ferret out the traitor. The new movie will be updated, and according to the trade blog it will now be a reporter rather than a CIA agent who gives Tanner the news that one of his friends is not who he thinks he is. Back in 2008, Kinberg himself was aiming to make Osterman his directorial debut. By 2010, Wigutow was penning a rewrite and RED's Robert Schwentke was circling the project. Apparently Bourne Identity helmer Doug Liman (who collaborated with Kinberg on Mr. & Mrs. Smith) also flirted with it for long enough to add himself to the film's long list of producers, which also includes Kinberg, Peter Davis and Captivate Entertainment's Jeffrey Weiner and Ben Smith, cinematic keepers of the Ludlum flame.

Tradecraft: Saxon Sharbino is the New Face of Teen Spies

Sorry, Richard Grieco. It's just not your month. First, Jonah Hill takes over 21 Jump Street, and now Fox has anointed a new face of teenage spydom. Deadline reports that relative newcomer Saxon Sharbino (I Spit on Your Grave) has been cast in the lead role of the network's still untitled Karyn Usher teen spy drama. According to the trade blog, Sharbino will play Jane Forsythe, "the orphaned [teenage] daughter of a CIA operative who encounters a mysterious rogue agent who serves as her surrogate father and professional mentor in the spy world" in the La Femme Nikita-meets-The Professional-sounding show. As previously reported, Brett Ratner is attached to direct. Judging by Sharbino's picture, I'd hazard that the network might have seen Hanna and decided they wanted a Soirise Ronan type. Personally, I love the teen spy subgenre, and I'm rooting for this pilot. However, I have a feeling Fox might not pick up two new spy dramas, meaning it's probably competing with The Asset for a slot on their Fall schedule. If so, may the best spy win...

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Both of my favorite spy movies from last year are hitting DVD in the next few months. We already heard that Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol comes out on April 17, but Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (which couldn't be a more different example of the genre - though both films do begin with missions going awry in Budapest) beats it by almost a month, hitting shelves on March 20 courtesy of Universal Studios Home Entertainment on both DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo. According to DVD Active, the DVD release will feature an audio commentary with director Tomas Alfredson and Oscar-nominated lead actor Gary Oldman, along with interviews with Alfredson, Oldman, co-stars Colin Firth and Tom Hardy, and co-writer Peter Straughan. The Blu-ray/DVD Combo release (obviously the one to get) will also include deleted scenes (more Roy Bland, I hope!), a making-of featurette called "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: First Look" (I assume this is the same as the Sky Movies featurette on the UK disc), an interview with author John le Carré, and an UltraViolet digital copy of the film. If these specs are final, that means that North American fans will miss out on several special features (as well as a lot of disposable physical bells and whistles) included on the Region B Blu-ray, but absent here: a featurette on Smiley, an "Inside the Circus" featurette, a "Shadow World" featurette, and a featurette on the UK premiere. Oh well. That's too bad, but hardly a reason not to get one of the best spy movies of the past few decades! (And maybe some of them will turn out to be Easter Eggs, or just aren't listed.)

Retail is $29.98 for the DVD and $34.98 for the Combo Pack, though both are currently available to pre-order from Amazon (via those links) for considerably less.

Read my full review of Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, a truly masterful adaptation of my all-time favorite novel, here.

The Avengers' Black Widow Gets Her Own Comic--Inspired by the REAL Avengers' Emma Peel!

Regular readers will know that I'm a big fan of the spies in the Marvel Comics Universe, including Nick Fury and the Black Widow. I'm slightly less of a fan of the spies in the Marvel movie universe, but I'm still excited to see Samuel L. Jackson's Fury and Scarlett Johannson's Widow (both veterans of Iron Man 2, as well as other Marvel movies in Jackson's case), along with their fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Coulson (an original movie character played by Clark Gregg; I still wish they'd just named him Jasper Sitwell, after the comics character) and Hawkeye (played by utility spy franchise fill-in Jeremy Renner, who made his debut as the character in a cameo in last year's Thor) in this summer's Joss Whedon-directed superhero tentpole The Avengers. (I'm not a fan, however, of Marvel's use of the title The Avengers, which to me belongs to John Steed and his various cohorts, who pre-date the Stan Lee comic by two years.) Now, according to Newsarama, the worlds of film and comic book will temporarily merge in a new comics miniseries with a title almost as awkward as my parenthetical-laden mega-sentence above: Marvel's The Avengers: Black Widow Strikes. The three-issue series by Fred Van Lente and various artists will reveal the movie Black Widow's espionage exploits that happened between Iron Man 2 and The Avengers. Coulson and the movie version of Nick Fury (who's based on the Ultimate Universe version of the character, who was actually modelled on Jackson long before he ever signed on to play the role) will also make appearances. But the reason I'm really excited about this series is because Van Lente name-checks the actress who played my very favorite catsuited female superspy, Emma Peel from the real Avengers of Sixties TV! "I am a huge espionage nut," the writer tells Newsarama. "My obsession with kick-ass spy females dates back to my sixth grade crush on Diana Rigg." An Emma Peel obsession is definitely the right background to writing a good Black Widow adventure.

Oddly, this comic will first be serialized in the Russian edition of Maxim, and will consequently be a bit more risque than film tie-in comics tend to be. The Marvel miniseries version then hits stores this May, the same month that The Avengers opens on screens across the country.

For fans interested in getting to know the real Black Widow of Marvel Comics, there are three great hardcover collections that make an excellent introduction: Sting of the Widow, Black Widow: Web of Intrigue (featuring a terrific Paul Gulacy-illustrated story that "guest stars" Michael Caine) and Black Widow: The Itsy-Bitsy Spider (which contains stories written by Queen & Country's Greg Rucka).

It Takes A Thief Box Set Drops to a Reasonable Price

It Takes a Thief: The Complete Series has finally dropped down to a somewhat reasonable price for what you get on Amazon: right now it's just $72.49 for all three seasons of the 1968-70 Robert Wagner spy show. The show itself would easily be worth the usual Amazon asking price of $98.99 (if maybe not the SRP of $199.99) were any effort put into the DVD release. But unfortunately eOne Entertainment's release was far from satisfying. They crammed a few cheap, stupid trinkets that surely nobody wants (like coasters) into an annoyingly chunky, disappointingly flimsy oversize box, and hoped that those things would distract fans from the appalling video quality on the third season episodes. (Season One looks great, though.) Were these seasons released individually for under $30 each, like Image's latest I Spy sets, I would have no complaints. But with a list price of $200, I definitely expected more. (You can read more of my complaints here.) Today's price is more in line with the quality you get. It actually amounts to less than $25 per season, and that's certainly fair. Because It Takes A Thief is, after all, a highly entertaining series that belongs in the library of every Sixties spy fan! So if you've been holding off... now's your chance to finally catch Alexander Mundy.

Missing Hits ABC in March

ABC's Missing (written by Greg Poirier) was my favorite script of last year's network spy pilots (much better, for instance, than Fox's Exit Strategy, which didn't get picked up), and now, nearly a year later, it's finally headed for our television screens! Yes, its ex-CIA agent tearing apart Europe to find her missing son premise is essentially "Taken with a lady," but (at the script stage, anyway) it makes the most of that premise. And, in my opinion, we could do a lot worst than weekly doses of Taken-with-a-lady shot on location in Europe! I'm hoping Ashley Judd and the production team pull this off... and the spots that ABC has been running lately certainly make it look like they have. (I saw a pretty cool ad before a movie recently, too.) This spot is kind of weird (perhaps it was designed for a trade show?), but once you get past Judd's introduction and into the footage, it gives you a good sense of the sort of action in store for us.

Missing premieres on ABC on Thursday, March 15 at 9/8c. 

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

DVD Active reports that Paramount will release the latest (and by far the best!) entry in the Mission: Impossible film series, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, on home video on April 17 in three configurations: single DVD ($19.99), a 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo ($29.99) and a 3-disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo ($34.99). (Those configurations don't quite match up with Amazon's current listings, though, so it's possible they might change, or that one might be a Best Buy exclusive or something.) If you like special features (or if you want the cool cover), that last one's the version you want. It will come with trailers, deleted scenes with optional commentary by director Brad Bird, and 13 featurettes: "The Sandstorm," "Props," "Heating Up In Dubai," "Vancouver Fisticuffs," "The Russian Prison," "Shooting in IMAX," "Art Department," "A Roll of Film," "Life Masks," "Stepping Into the Storm," "Dubai Car Crash," "Lens on the Burj" and "Composer." The DVD will include the deleted scenes and two of the featurettes; the 2-disc combo will include the deleted scenes and four of the featurettes. For me, there's no question: I loved the movie (it tied as my favorite spy film of last year, in fact), and I want to see all the behind-the-scenes material I can! I only wish Bird had contributed a feature commentary as well. I wonder if one of those deleted scenes includes that awesome indoor ski resort in Dubai where we heard they shot, but which didn't make an appearance in the finished film? Hope so!

Foyle's War Returns... And Transitions Into a Full-On Spy Show

When you run a media blog like this one, you're email in-box tends to fill up with press releases. If your site's as specific as mine, the vast majority of them are largely irrelevant and just amount to spam. But the upside to that is that once in a while you wake up to some truly great and unexpected news in your in-box... like yesterday morning. Yesterday, Acorn Media, ITV and Eleventh Hour Films announced that one of my very favorite TV series of the last decade, Foyle's War, would have another season. And, of particular note to readers of this site, while past seasons have always contained a definite element of espionage, the new season will transition into a full-on spy show!

The original incarnation of Foyle's War focused on the exploits of a Hastings police inspector in wartime England. The great Michael Kitchen (Bill Tanner to Pierce Brosnan's James Bond) played the sublimely understated Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle, whose unwavering integrity often put him at odds with his superiors, the military and the intelligence establishment. Unsurprisingly in a time of war and a country under siege, many of his cases involved enemy spies or saboteurs, and he frequently came into contact with members of various British wartime spy agencies. Now that the war is over and Foyle is retired as a police officer, it seems like those contacts will play a big role in the next stage of his career. According to the press release, "Series 8 will be set during the early period after World War II with Foyle focusing his attention on the world of espionage as he gathers secret intelligence in support of Britain’s security, defence and the Government’s foreign and economic policies. The stories will range from Foyle identifying highly placed atomic spies to a true story of government corruption. A world of transition where the values and certainties of the war have given way to austerity, exhaustion and doubts about the direction the new government is taking. In his new role as a Senior Intelligence Officer, Foyle discovers that the British establishment is rife with communist sympathizers and traitors. In this delicately balanced period in history, 1946-47, Foyle will use all his intelligence, guile and intuition to keep the country safe."

At one point, Foyle's return seemed up in the air due to legal issues surrounding the rights. Luckily, Acorn Media (who have distributed the DVDs of all the seasons in the United States) ended up acquiring permanent ownership of the series in November 2010, and made it a top priority to develop another season and get the original creative talent on board. That includes producer Jill Green and writer/creator Anthony Horowitz, well known to spy fans as the author of the Alex Rider novels. Horowitz will pen the first and third of the season's three feature-length episodes. (David Kane, who wrote the 2010 episode "Killing Time," will pen the second episode.) “I have returned to Foyle’s War because there are still some amazing stories I want to tell,” Horowitz said. “The war may be over but Foyle’s career goes on.” Espionage is clearly a long-time interest for Horowitz. Besides creating the Bond-inspired Alex Rider series, he pitted Foyle against SMERSH in one of the Series 7 stories set in 1945, “The Russian House.”

In addition to Michael Kitchen, original series co-star Honeysuckle Weeks is slated to return to the drama playing as Samantha Stewart, Foyle's one-time driver. According to the press release, “Post-war, Samantha is now married and relishing domesticity. Her character also enters a fresh era as she delights in a surprising new working role.” Not mentioned is the third series star, Anthony Howell, who portrayed Foyle's second-in-command in Hastings, Sgt. Paul Milner. Milner had moved on in a logical career direction that made it difficult to shoehorn him into the last season's plots, so it seems unlikely that he'll be back for these new episodes... though it would be nice if Horowitz can at least work in a cameo for him!

The new season is slated to go into production this fall to air in 2013. While all previous editions of Foyle's War have been seen in America on PBS, the U.S. broadcaster for the new episodes has yet to be announced.

Tradecraft: Archer Renewed For Season 4

According to the Hollywood Reporter's Live Feed, FX has renewed its hit animated spy comedy Archer for a 13-episode fourth season. FX Productions has also signed a deal extending Archer executive producers Adam Reed and Matt Thompson's deal for another two years. Their extended deal guarantees their involvement in future seasons of Archer if it ends up renewed again, which seems likely, given that it keeps rising in the ratings. “It was an easy decision to order more Archer,” FX EVP of Original Programming Nick Grad told the trade. “Adam, Matt, and our amazing voice cast are delivering one of the funniest and smartest shows on television. It has deservedly grown beyond its initial cult following to become both a critical and ratings success. It is a true asset to the FX comedy roster.”

Tradecraft: Skyfall Goes IMAX

Sony and MGM announced today (via Deadline) that Skyfall, Daniel Craig's third outing as James Bond, will be the first 007 film released simultaneously in IMAX theaters. (It comes out October 26 in Britain and November 9 in America.) Though the press release promises that "The IMAX release of Skyfall will be digitally re-mastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience® with proprietary IMAX [Digital Re-mastering] technology," it's important to note that the film is not being shot or partially shot with IMAX cameras, which is what made action sequences in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and The Dark Knight so memorable. (For those sequences, the image would actually expand to fill the entire IMAX screen from top to bottom. Because films tend to be shot in widescreen aspect ratios, most mainstream releases don't fit to vertically fill out an entire IMAX screen.) However, there is still a serious upside to an IMAX release. Back to the press release: "The crystal-clear images coupled with IMAX’s customized theatre geometry and powerful digital audio create a unique environment that will make audiences feel as if they are in the movie." Plus, it will be cool to see a Bond movie so damn big! (Provided you're watching on a proper, larger-than-life IMAX screen, and not one of those disappointing mini-IMAXs that frequently confuse consumers at shopping mall theaters.) I remember watching Goldfinger on the IMAX screen at Navy Pier in Chicago back when I was in college, and that was pretty amazing even without being custom-formatted for the technology. Personally, when it comes to gimmicks to get audiences back into theaters, I greatly, greatly prefer IMAX to 3D.

Skyfall Videoblog

Today director Sam Mendes released his first videoblog (on 007.com) from the set of the 23rd official James Bond movie, Skyfall. (Or is that SkyFall? I'm still not sure, because every time it's mentioned in an official studio release, it's inevitalbly all capitalized.) Anyway, I can't wait for this movie!

Tradecraft: RED 2 Director Hired

The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blog reports that Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest) has been tapped to direct the sequel to Robert Schwentke's 2010 hit RED (review here) for Summit. According to the trade, original cast members Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich and Morgan Freeman are all expected to return - even though at least one of them died in the first movie! They're not mentioned, but I really hope that Brian Cox, Mary Louise Parker and Karl Urban also return. Urban's a great actor who despite roles in big movies perpetually seems to hover in the realm of the almost action hero, and RED showed he has what it takes for the big leagues. (I'd love to see him headline his own spy movie one day.) As previously reported, the writers of the first film (which was loosely adapted from a DC comic book), Erich and Jon Hoeber, penned the sequel. Summit, now owned by Lionsgate, hopes to start rolling on RED 2 by the end of this year, once Willis wraps Die Hard 5.

New Spy DVDs Out Recently

This catch-up post keeps growing longer and longer the more it keeps getting put off. I missed quite a few weeks of new spy DVDs in January and February, and in hopes of getting back on track for weekly Tuesday posts, here's a great big roundup of some choice titles from the past month and a half.

The Michael Brandt/Derek Haas spy thriller The Double, starring Richard Gere, Topher Grace and Quantum of Solace's Stana Katic, received a limited theatrical release last fall on its way to a DVD debut at the end of January from Image Entertainment. Consequently, it's probably new to most spy fans on DVD, and comes with an impressive pedigree: The Double was penned by the writers of 3:10 to Yuma and Wanted (as well as the as-yet-unproduced spy movies The Matarese Circle and Matt Helm).
The DVD and Blu-ray hit stores a few weeks ago. Extras include a commentary with writer Haas and writer/director Brandt, producer interviews, and a reportedly spoiler-filled trailer. Here's the studio's description of the film:

When a United States Senator is brutally murdered, the evidence points to a Soviet assassin code-named Cassius, who was long-thought to be dead. Two men who know Cassius best are thrown together to catch him. Paul Shepherdson (Richard Gere, An Officer and a Gentleman) is a retired CIA operative who spent his career tracking Cassius around the globe. Ben Geary (Topher Grace, Spider-Man 3) is a hotshot young FBI Agent and family man who has studied the killer's every move. Ben thinks he knows Cassius, but Paul knows he is dead wrong. Now, time is running out to stop this merciless killing machine before he finds his next target. Martin Sheen (The Departed), Odette Yustman (Cloverfield) and Stana Katic (Castle) costar in this tense thriller from the co-writers of Wanted and 3:10 to Yuma that will keep you guessing until the very last shot.

Retail is $27.97 for the DVD and $29.97 for the Blu-ray, though of course both are available much cheaper on Amazon.

One of the weirdest and coolest corners of the spy genre has to be the decidedly odd fumetti and fumetti neri subgenre of the mid-to-late Sixties, an offshoot of the Eurospy movement which found the Italian James Bond wannabes dressing up in tights and masks. (The Fantastic Argoman and Diabolik are prime examples; you can read all about them and others of their ilk in my Costumed Adventurer Week recap.) Hollywood stunt man-turned-director Scott Rhodes very obviously shares my affinity for this unique marriage of spy and superhero, and as I first wrote about last summer when the series debuted, he's single-handedly revived it with his web series homage to the likes of Superargo and Argoman, The Adventures of Superseven! (No direct relation to the eurospy Super Seven - two words - who liked to call Cairo.) Hopefully you've already seen Superseven in action on YouTube, but if you haven't, the web series' entire first season is now available on DVD! And it's brimming with special features, too, including interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, bloopers, and even a gallery of artwork designed in the style of Sixties lobby cards by my fellow spy blogger, Permission To Kill's David Foster. Superseven is a very entertaining series with impressive production values and acting, sure to thrill fans of Sixties Eurospy and costumed adventurer movies. The 2-disc set can be ordered for $14.99 plus $3 shipping and handling directly from the Superseven website. Stay tuned in the coming week or so for an interview with Scott Rhodes and a chance to win this DVD!

Disney has released the cult favorite 1983 Margot Kidder spy movie Trenchcoat on DVD as part of their made-on-demand "Disney Generations" line. Trenchcoat, which also stars Robert Hays and features Raiders of the Lost Ark's Ronald Lacey and Poirot's David Suchet in smaller parts, caused a bit of controversy when it came out in 1983, as it was the first film Disney had aimed specifically at the adult market. (Not that it's that adult, but it's not designed for kids.) Ultimately it led to the creation of the Touchstone brand so the studio could differentiate such fare. Kidder stars as a mystery writer who goes on vacation in scenic Malta (another undeniable star of this show) and finds herself caught up in a web of international espionage and terrorism, where no one is who they seem to be. It's long been demanded on DVD by its fans, so this release is sure to please quite a few people. Now I hope Disney uses their Generations label to put out a few more of their 80s spy capers, like the 1987 Walt Disney's World of Color TV movie Double Agent, starring Michael McKean (which I saw on the same day I first saw Thunderball - and I preferred the Disney movie!*), or perhaps a reissue of the long out-of-print latter-day fumetti Condorman, with Bond Girl Barbara Carera.

Alfred Hitchcock's 1946 spy masterpiece Notorious made its Blu-ray debut a few weeks ago courtesy of Fox and MGM. Besides an impressive HD transfer (really, I don't know what some Amazon reviewers are complaining about), the Blu-ray boasts two commentaries by film historians, an isolated music and effects track, "The Ultimate Romance: The Making of Notorious" featurette, "Alfred Hitchcock: The Ultimate Spymaster" featurette (a must-see for fans of the genre), an AFI Tribute to Hitchcock, a 1948 radio play starring Joseph Cotton and Ingrid Bergman, a Peter Bogdanovich audio interview, a second audio interview with François Truffaut quizzing Hitch on a number of subjects including both Notorious and the auteur's earlier spy movie Sabotage, a restoration comparison and a still gallery. Retail is already a bargain at $24.99, but, unsurprisingly, it's significantly less on Amazon.

After an extraordinarily prolonged drought, another James Bond movie materialized on Blu-ray a few weeks ago... but not, I'm afraid, one of the titles that many fans have long been hoping for, like The Spy Who Loved Me, You Only Live Twice or On Her Majesty's Secret Service. (We'll finally see those in high-def as part of a massive 50th Anniversary box set this fall.) Instead, Fox and MGM have made the 1967 spoof version of Casino Royale widely available. The title was previously available on Blu only as a Best Buy exclusive. Casino Royale '67, starring David Niven, Woody Allen, Peter Sellers and Orson Welles (among many others), can now, at last, be found everywhere (including Amazon). The SRP is $19.99, and the disc contains the same extras available on the last DVD edition: an audio commentary with Bond historians Steven Jay Rubin and John Cork, the original theatrical trailer, and a five-part documentary produced by Rubin on the unbelievable behind-the-scenes shenanigans that went on during the making of Casino Royale.

The latest in Shout! Factory's series of multi-DVD set reissues of out-of-print Roger Corman exploitation movies, Lethal Ladies Collection: Volume 2, includes the low-budget Seventies spy movie Cover Girl Models. According to the studio copy, "a fashion photography assignment teams three American models and inadvertently plunges them into the mystery and danger of international espionage. When an invaluable roll of microfilm is sewed into one of the girls’ fashion gowns, they are drawn into the violence and intrigue of a spy-vs.-counterspy conspiracy." It's all just an excuse for T&A in cheap Manila locations, of course, but that's the Seventies for you. Cover Girl Models was previously issued on a Region 1 disc from Televista for Latin American companies. The Shout! set also includes the stewardesses-vs-hijackers movie Fly Me and a most welcome reissue of the long unavailable (and very pricey on the collector's market) Pam Grier gladiator classic The Arena. Extras include trailers and TV spots as well as all the Arena special features from the out of print New Concorde DVD, plus a new director's commentary on that one. Retail is an affordable $24.97 for the 2-disc set.

*Of course I was 10, and haven't had the opportunity to see it since. It's probably terrible.

Tradecraft: Syfy Buys Sci-Spy Pi(lot)

Deadline reports that cable network Syfy has bought an action drama pilot from Covert Affairs writer Brett Conrad that's sci-fi with a spy twist--or possibly spy with a sci-fi twist. According to the trade blog, The Dover Agenda (nice Ludlumesque title there!) follows "a young man who is recruited by a future version of himself to work for a secret branch of Military Intelligence specializing in parapsychology and future tech." Sounds like a pretty cool premise to me. It's currently being rewritten to fit Syfy's 90-minute pilot formula.

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Covert Affairs - Season Two

TV Shows On DVD reports that Universal will release Covert Affairs - Season Two, a 4-disc, 16-episode set, on DVD on May 1. This USA spy show starring Piper Perabo, Christopher Gorham, Kari Matchett and the great Peter Gallagher (though not quite enough of him) got even better in its second season, and one impressive Berlin-set episode made my Best of 2011 list. There are even more actual foreign locations in Season 2, from Istanbul to Paris to Stockholm, and their presence really elevates this series above other spy shows that dress up Burbank as whatever locale that week's script calls for. There are no extras listed yet, but the first season had some so I'm hoping Season Two does as well. SRP is $39.98, but the set is already available to pre-order for considerably less than that on Amazon. The artwork provided by TV Shows On DVD is temporary, but probably a good indication of what we'll eventually see on the shelf.